越南的猪肉短缺已经开始成为一个全国性的问题。好在越南政府并不封杀或者故意歪曲这类新闻。猪肉占越南人肉类消费的70%。除中国外，现在要关注美国猪肉出口的总体数据了，这是我近期一直在强化的一个观点。哪怕中国因为一些原因减慢了进口美国猪肉的速度，但是亚洲其他国家也许会迅速跟上。

Pig Scourge Pushes Vietnamese Farmers Toward Cows and Ostriches

Vietnam’s leaders are asking farmers to diversify from pork

Pork accounts for 70% of the country’s meat consumption

By?Mai Ngoc Chau

(Bloomberg) –?

It didn’t take long for the?deadly swine disease?sweeping through Vietnam to scare Tran Van Chien into getting rid of his 6,000 hogs.

Just three months after the country first reported an outbreak of African swine fever, the pig farmer of 20 years has given up on a meat beloved by his country. Instead, he’s placing his future in chickens, cows and even ostriches, the giant flightless bird that’s an increasingly popular source of meat for steaks and noodle soup in the Southeast Asian country.

“I’ve had enough losses and headaches from pig farming,” said the 56-year-old Chien, owner of a farm in a suburban town in Hanoi. “No more hogs.”

Chien isn’t alone. In fact,?Vietnam?is encouraging a greater number of pig farmers to expand production to other livestock. With among the world’s highest consumption of pork per capita, Vietnam has seen the pig disease ravage its hog industry and the government has warned of significant economic damage ahead.

More than 1.7 million pigs have been culled since the disease was?first reported?in two northern provinces at the start of February. That’s even more than China, the world’s biggest pork producer with output 20 times the size of Vietnam’s, after nearly 10 months of suffering the virus.

Pork at a market in Hanoi.

In Dong Nai, known as Vietnam’s “pig capital” on account of the number of pig farms, the herd has slumped by 20% to 2 million heads so far this year. Many farmers there are now switching to raise ducks and chickens instead. And ostriches, which were first introduced to Vietnam in 1995, can now command three times the price of pork.

The country’s poultry population jumped 6.8% in April compared with a year ago, while the cow herd rose 3.1%. In Dong Nai, the number